A HOST OF JOYOUS YELLOW TRUMPETERS 74 IN THE DISTANCE RISE THE GREAT LONE HEAVENWARD HILLS 84 THE LINE OF THE UNTROUBLED HILLS STRONG AND STILL IN THE BROAD SUNSHINE 94 BELOW THE LOW HEDGE LIES PASTURE BRIGHT WITH BUTTERCUPS, WHERE THE CATTLE FEED 100 THE GREAT HORSES MOVING IN SLOW STEADY PACE AS THE FARMER TURNS HIS FURROW 102 THERE IS A PLACE WAITING FOR ME UNDER THE FIRS IN THE QUIET CHURCHYARD 104 THE ROADMENDER [Illustration: The white winding road] I I HAVE attained my ideal: I am a roadmender, some say stonebreaker. Both titles are correct, but the one is more pregnant than the other. All day I sit by the roadside on a stretch of grass under a high hedge of saplings and a tangle of traveller's joy, woodbine, sweetbriar, and late roses. Opposite me is a white gate, seldom used, if one may judge from the trail of honeysuckle growing tranquilly along it: I know now that whenever and wherever I die my soul will pass out through this white gate; and then, thank God, I shall not have need to undo that trail. In our youth we discussed our ideals freely: I wonder how many beside myself have attained, or would understand my attaining. After all, what do we ask of life, here or indeed hereafter, but leave to serve, to live, to commune with our fellow-men and with ourselves; and from the lap of earth to look up into the face of God? All these gifts are mine as I sit by the winding white road and serve the footsteps of my fellows. There is no room in my life for avarice or anxiety; I who serve at the altar live of the altar: I lack nothing but have nothing over; and when the winter of life comes I shall join the company of weary old men who sit on the sunny side of the workhouse wall and wait for the tender mercies of God. Just now it is the summer of things; there is life and music everywhere--in the stones themselves, and I live to-day beating out the rhythmical hammer-song of The Ring. There is real physical joy in the rise and swing of the arm, in the jar of a fair stroke, the split and scatter of the quartz: I am learning to be ambidextrous, for why should Esau sell his birthright when there is enough for both? Then the rest-hour comes, bringing the luxurious ache of tired but not weary limbs; and I lie outstretched and renew my strength, sometimes with my face deep-nestled in the cool green grass, sometimes on my back looking up into the blue sky which no wise man would wish to fathom.